Not content with snapping up the iPhone, O2 may have also secured exclusive rights to sell Palm’s upcoming Pré smartphone in the UK.
Palm Pre Palm's Pré: could arrive on O2 in the UK
Quoting sources familiar with distribution contracts between Telefónica – O2’s parent company – and Palm, Spanish website Expansión has reported …

I cant believe Vodafone let this one slip past them

bugger

I was really looking forward to the Pre, but I can't have it on O2. Hopefully there will be a SIM free option that doesn't cost silly money (smart phones shouldn't cost more than netbooks with a 3G card - it doesn't feel right).

I was interested in the Pre...

But having seen the slider, I'm not.

It'll be top-heavy again, with the weight of the device acting up against your thumbs as you type. I got very painful thumbs from using my N95 to type as a result, and I can't use a blackberry for the same reason.

I played the the G1, and didn't have that problem because the weight is in the keyboard itself and it rests in your hand. The iPhone is the same.

minus 1 pre` customer

I have an iPhone 3G, i wanted the web in my pocket and nothing compared to the browser on the iPhone until the Pre`. I was going to switch to the Pre` to get the freedom of network choice and packages. Why would i bother changing now?

The quirks of the iPhone that may not exist in the Pre` will not be enough to justify a change of handset, only if it becomes free on a handset upgrade would i now consider the Pre`. Shame really, as i was ready to dive in with both feet until this news.

Stupid

Same old, same old

And just as this story is totally unsurprising (that the phone will be locked to one (shite) operator, not the O2 part) - this comment is a carbon copy of most people's when they hear this news. I won't switch to O2 just for this hardware, no matter how much I want it.

Bad move, Palm. And your business decisions are normally so spot on *coff*

O2 so bad?

I travel up and down the country, and can honestly say that their 3g service is pretty good. I know it's not the best, but I rarely get any drop out apart from those where all of the networks drop out. Been using their service since they went 3G, although not with an iPhone.. Hmmm.. Maybe that's the reason.

Hmmm, first positive comment?

Am I the first to make a positive comment?

I switched from Virgin to O2. But bear in mind that I'm a pre pay user. O2 is miles better in service and network in comparison. My K750i (don't laugh, it's one of the reasons I'd like to upgrade to a Pre!) would take minutes to connect to the Virgin network, whereas with O2 it's a few seconds.

So I for one welcome our new Palm Pre controlling masters!

Oh and I still use a Palm TX with a TomTom bluetooth GPS so I'll be watching the apps on the Pre with great anticipation... (yes it's all web based development now, so not the huge choice that you got with Palm but still, we can hope!).

not usually sim-locked

Oh, for fuck sake!

I was looking forward to getting the Palm; streets ahead of the iBone. Now it's going to be locked to O2 with their patented billing fabrication system, data access when I'm fast asleep and fractured call-centre topology? Looks like I'll be getting a SIM-free model from overseas then.

Fuck O2 and the calamitous pile of putrefying horseshit they call a service.

Alien, because that must be the only excuse they have for doing as bad a job as they do.

If they make it an exclusive deal

Drivel

FFS, all locking this rather lovely looking new phone will do is force customers elsewhere. I would love to own a Pre and would like to have a legitimate one rather than a dodgy cracked overseas job, but I refuse to give in to carrier blackmail on the issue.

Just when Palm looked like they were digging themselves out of their hole, they do this. Rubbish.

@By Dale Le Page

Network tied handsets do just that - they tie you to a network.

I have a perfectly good virgin PAYG sim, and put it in my sim-free phone. When I go to Germany I take it out and put a German Selphy sim in. In Korea it gets my KPN sim stuffed up it. In Bueonos Aries I stick in a t-mobile sim.

Where I live Orange has the best coverage. Where my sister lives it is T-mobile. Both of us have sent back O2 phones because they are a brick 90% of the time.

Why should we be blackmailed into using an inferior network just to get a decent phone? It is a very stupid decision by Palm, in my opinion.